As we all know, Mac OS X has support for what is called 'fat binaries'. These are binaries that can carry code for for instance multiple architectures - in the case of the Mac, PowerPC and x86. Ryan Gordon was working on an implementation of fat binaries for Linux - but due to the conduct of the Linux maintainers, Gordon has halted the effort.

Except it doesn't mean anything, as the developer still needs to compile for all the architectures he wants to support. Being able to put all architectures in one only file contrasted to releasing multiple packages means shit if you still have to go through the compile process. If you are already supporting several architectures, then distributing a couple more packages doesn't make your life harder than it already is.